Writing quality, reading skills, and domain knowledge as factors in text comprehension.

103 undergraduates listened to and recalled 3 passages and were given a general reading comprehension test. The passages were presented such that Ss could use general knowledge to understand them or such that no specific world knowledge seemed applicable. The passages were written in 2 different versions, preserving their content but varying their style. All 3 factors (domain knowledge, writing style, and skill) significantly affected reproductive recall, and there were no interactions between these factors. However, while good writing was sufficient to improve the reproduction of the texts, an analysis of the recall elaborations Ss made revealed that the correctness of their elaborations depended strongly on the availability of appropriate domain knowledge. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

North sea oil: Responses to employment opportunities

Britain's new offshore oil industry might have generated much additional employment especially in the building, manning and supply of rigs. But there was a failure at first to take proper advantage; little was done to train people in new skills. Consequently the oil companies brought in equipment and skilled personnel from abroad. Eventually efforts were made to improve matters and the paper examines the steps taken to bring more of the employment benefits to Britain, but finds only partial success.     

Blood-flow sensing by anionic biopolymers

The purpose of this study was to compare local recurrence, distant metastases, and survival rate in 350 patients with cancer of the middle and low rectum who underwent a radical abdominoperineal resection (APER) or a sphincter-saving resection (SSR) in our Institute. There were 257 APER patients and 93 SSR patients, with a median follow-up of 77 months. At 5 years, the estimates in APER and SSR patients were respectively 11% and 30% for the incidence of pelvic recurrence, 18% and 8% for the incidence of distant metastases, and 64% and 73% for overall survival. In the multivariate analysis it was found that Dukes' stage significantly affected pelvic recurrences, distant metastases rate and overall survival; histologic type affected only the pelvic recurrence rate. However, the final outcome of patients following APER or SSR was similar, suggesting that local failure per se does not affect long-term survival.     

Incorporating If...Then...Personality Signatures in Person Perception: Beyond the Person-Situation Dichotomy.

Three studies investigated conditions in which perceivers view dispositions and situations as interactive, rather than independent, causal forces when making judgments about another's personality. Study 1 showed that perceivers associated 5 common trait terms (e.g., friendly and shy) with characteristic if...then... (if situation a, then the person does x, but if situation b, then the person does y) personality signatures. Study 2 demonstrated that perceivers used information about a target's stable if...then... signature to infer the target's motives and traits; dispositional judgments were mediated by inferences about the target's motivations. Study 3 tested whether perceivers draw on if...then... signatures when making judgments about Big Five trait dimensions. Together, the findings indicate that perceivers take account of person-situation interactions (reflected in if...then... signatures) in everyday explanations of social behavior and personality dispositions. Boundary conditions are also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A sensitivity analysis of the linear complementarity programming model: Appalachian steam coal and the natural gas market

There have been extensive attempts in recent years to perform spatial equilibrium analysis of commodity markets, particularly that of energy. Most of these attempts have been based on linear programming transportation models, and more recently quadratic programming models. Unfortunately, neither of these modelling approaches can deal with the case of multi-commodity analysis with non-symmetric regression coefficients. In this paper, we overcome this problem by employing the linear complementarity programming model. In addition, we show how the model can be applied to coal and gas energy flows within a single region. Future potential applications of the model are also implied.     

HDL3-mediated inhibition of thrombin-induced platelet aggregation and fibrinogen binding occurs via decreased production of phosphoinositide-derived second messengers 1,2-diacylglycerol and inositol 1,4,5-tris-phosphate

We demonstrate that physiological concentrations of HDL3 inhibit the thrombin-induced platelet fibrinogen binding and aggregation in a time- and concentration-dependent fashion. The underlying mechanism includes HDL3-mediated inhibition of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bis-phosphate turnover, 1,2-diacylglycerol and inositol 1,4,5-tris-phosphate formation, and intracellular calcium mobilization. The inhibitory effects of HDL3 on inositol 1,4,5-tris-phosphate formation and intracellular calcium mobilization were abolished after covalent modification of HDL3 with dimethylsuberimidate. Furthermore, they could be blocked by calphostin C and bis-indolylmaleimide, 2 highly selective and structurally unrelated protein kinase C inhibitors. However, the inhibitory effects of HDL3 were not blocked by H89, a protein kinase A inhibitor. In addition, HDL3 failed to induce cAMP formation but stimulated the phosphorylation of the protein kinase C 40- to 47-kD major protein substrate. We observed a close temporal relationship between the HDL3-mediated inhibition of thrombin-induced inositol 1,4,5-tris-phosphate formation, intracellular calcium mobilization, and fibrinogen binding and the phosphorylation of the protein kinase C 40- to 47-kD major protein substrate. Taken together, these findings indicate that the HDL3-mediated inhibition of thrombin-induced fibrinogen binding and aggregation occurs via inhibition of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bis-phosphate turnover and formation of 1,2-diacylglycerol and inositol 1,4,5-tris-phosphate. Protein kinase C may be involved in this process.     

Retail yield and fabrication times for veal as influenced by purchasing options and merchandising styles

Twenty-nine selected styles of subprimals or sections of veal were obtained from a commercial facility to assist in the development of a support program for retailers. They were fabricated into bone-in or boneless retail cuts and associated components by trained meat cutters. Each style selected (n = 6) was used to generate mean retail yields and labor requirements, which were calculated from wholesale and retail weights and processing times. Means and standard errors for veal ribs consisting of five different styles (n = 30) concluded that style #2, 7-rib 4 (10 cm) x 4 (10 cm), had the lowest percentage of total retail yield (P < .05) owing to the greatest percentage of bone. Furthermore, rib style #2 required the longest total processing time (P < .05). Rib styles #3, 7-rib chop-ready, and #5, 6-rib chop ready, yielded the greatest percentage of total retail yield and also had the shortest total processing time (P < .05). Within veal loins, style #2, 4 (10 cm) x 4 (10 cm) loin kidney fat in, had the greatest percentage fat (P < .05). Loin styles #2 and #3, 4 (10 cm) x 4 (10 cm) loin special trimmed, generated more lean and fat trimmings and bone, resulting in lower percentage of total retail yields than loin style #1, 0 (0 cm) x 1 (2.5 cm) loin special trimmed (P < .05). Results indicated that bone-in subprimals and sections required more processing time if fabricated into a boneless end point. In addition, as the number of different retail cuts increased, processing times also increased.